The hotel was constructed on the land where the Bishop of Church of Ceylon resided until the 1970s.

[7] In the same year, John Keells Holdings acquired a controlling stake of 60.5 per cent of Asian Hotels Ltd for LKR4.1 billion.

[8] John Keells Holdings rebranded the hotel as Cinnamon Grand in 2005.

[9] It was one of the sites targeted in a coordinated string of terrorist bombings that occurred on Easter.

[10][11] Radhika Sarathkumar, a popular Sri Lankan born Indian Tamil actress narrowly escaped from a bomb explosion which happened at Cinnamon Grand Hotel where she was present after wrapping up shooting for a film.